THE fight to save York City gained new hope today after council chiefs stepped into the breach.

City of York Council is backing a consortium, made up of local businesses and the York City Supporters' Trust, in its bid to take over the club.

All three political leaders have been working closely together over the issue.

If the bid is successful, the council will do all it can to bring the football club to Huntington Stadium, if moves to remain at Bootham Crescent fail.

A statement, issued by the office of chief executive David Atkinson, said the authority believed the club could be saved before the administrators' deadline of January 18.

But the council said that would require "intensive effort, as well as goodwill on the part of those in whose hands lies the power to thwart a rescue".

The Evening Press revealed, yesterday, that two front-runners - including the consortium - were leading the race to buy the club from the administrators.

Any sale of the club must be achieved by the January 18 deadline, or York City could face being wound up.

Leading council officers, including Mr Atkinson, were locked in talks for nearly three hours yesterday while the authority thrashed out its current position.

The statement said that the council was willing to work with any bidder that could put together a viable business plan for the club. But it added that only the consortium had so far come forward to work with the council.

"The problems facing bidders are immense. There is a deadline of January 18 for bids to be prepared.

"The club has significant debts and will not last to the end of the season without a large injection of cash.

"Yet the club has no ground to play on at the end of the season. It is not realistic to expect a bidder to inject significant cash into the club from January 18 with no security of having somewhere to play next season, and we have recognised this is a key issue where the council can assist."

This afternoon's statement said that the council believed that Bootham Crescent offered the best home for York City, if the ground owners Bootham Crescent Holdings (BCH) reconsidered its decision to sell.

The council had explored ways in which "the club could continue to play at Bootham Crescent by testing out an approach under which the council could swap adjacent land at Shipton Street for a share in Bootham Crescent".

The statement revealed that that offer was "not acceptable to other parties at that time". It was also revealed that the council was still looking at the option of having a long-term stake in Bootham Crescent and that talks would continue to explore this.

The statement said: "If Bootham Crescent is not to be the club's long-term home, then the council, albeit reluctantly, accepts the view of those it is working with that the only realistic alternative...is Huntington Stadium.

"We will do all we can to make available Huntington Stadium, but it cannot be done overnight and there are significant financial and other issues involved.

"Not only would new stands have to be built at Huntington Stadium, but there are also significant planning implications and the interests of Cannons, the rugby and athletics clubs, Monks Cross businesses, Huntington residents and others to be taken into account through the proper planning processes."

The statement concluded that securing a temporary home by January 18 so that a cash injection can "sensibly be made" remained the "most problematic hurdle to overcome".

Updated: 14:15 Friday, January 10, 2003